I stumbled across P.O.D. in a small Christian book store in Marietta, GA while visiting my cousin the summer of 1997. An employee and friend of my cousin (would eventually become her husband) pointed me towards the "alternative music" section. That's where I stumbled across P.O.D.'s Live at TomFest '97 album. The album art intrigued me so I popped the demo CD into the CD player and was floored. I had never heard anything like it. From that day forward I lived and breathed every word - every note of that album. I began to search out their previous and following records - it's easy to say I was obsessed... Just ask anyone I went to high school with - I adored this band.
As the years went by I lived for the Tuesday's that a new album of theirs would hit the streets. I had September 11, 2011 marked on my calendar and couldn't wait to use my free period to go pick up the album at my favorite music shop in the mall. I remember vividly walking from my 1st period class to my 2nd period class and someone in the stairwell saying that a bomb had gone off in New York City. Not really understanding the magnitude - I walked into my 2nd period English class to find the class of seniors from the previous period still there all eyes glued to the news on the TV - that's when we all saw the second plane hit. Then the news to the Pentagon. The air was instantly sucked out of the room and the assumption that everyone had about the situation was thrown out the window... This was no accident. This was intentional. This was an attack.
School wasn't the same that day - our regular lessons were put on hold as we glued ourselves to the TV news. I took my free period as previously planned and went to an eerily vacant mall to pick up my CD. I popped into my CD player and didn't take it out for a solid month.
Without knowing it Traa, Wuv, Sonny, & Marcos had created a masterpiece of recovery for me. I drowned myself in this album musically and lyrically. Memorizing every word - attempting to learn every song on guitar and bass. This record was my path to understanding and recovery of the situation. The messages of hope, empowerment, and love hit home for me in this tumultuous time in our nation - and I truly believe this helped it's success. Going on to sell 133,000 copies in it's first week and eventually triple platinum in the US alone - I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this.
To this day putting this record on brings back floods of emotion of that day while at the same time reminding me the be thankful to be alive, thankful to be loved by God, and thankful to be born in this great and free country. 10 years later our lives have pretty much returned to normal, but we will never forget what happened 10 years ago today. We will never forget those who were murdered by cowardly madmen. We will never forget those that have given their lives and those that put their lives on the line to ensure our safety every day.
Thank you to Traa, Wuv, Sonny, & Marcos for the path to healing in the form of music.
God Bless America.